Discovery Channel recruits UI mineralogist for Louisiana Investigation

Trailed by camera crews, University of Iowa adjunct professor Umran Dogan scoured five homes in Houma, Louisiana this June in search of one thing: asbestos, the fibrous mineral known to cause mesothelioma.

It didn’t take long.

“I wasn’t expecting actually to go for just one or two days and find asbestos, but I did,” said Dogan, a colleague of CGRER co-director Greg Carmichael. “There was no question that chrysotile type asbestos was in those samples.”

Dogan is a renowned mineralogist who has worked extensively with minerals linked to the cancer mesothelioma, namely asbestos and erionite. His prominence in the field led producers at the Discovery Channel to recruit him and pathologist Michele Carbone for an episode of its documentary series “Surgery Saved My Life.”

The hour-long episode, titled “Ray of Light,” is set to premiere in 2008.

“Discovery Channel found six mesothelioma cases in Houma, Lousiana,” said Dogan, a member of the UI’s Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research. “Mesothelioma is a very rare disease, so six is a lot in a small town.”

Not only were the six cases found in the same town, but in the same household; “Ray of Light” depicts one woman’s attempt to discover why mesothelioma has plagued her family.

The show’s producers first contacted Carbone, Dogan’s research partner and director of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii (CRCH), for the episode. The CRCH, according to Carbone, utilizes “51% of all the research money in the United States every year to research mesothelioma,” making it easily the largest mesothelioma research facility in the country. In the United States alone, mesothelioma kills roughly 3,000 people each year, Carbone said.

“One of the main goals of our research is to identify the factors that make some people more susceptible than others to asbestos,” he said. “In particular, genetically.”

Once on board with the Discovery Channel, Carbone suggested that John Dunton-Downer, the episode’s producer, recruit Dogan to take samples from the suspect houses in Houma. Dogan has conducted similar ongoing research in Cappadocia, Turkey, the mesothelioma capital of the world — in certain Cappadocian villages, the cancer rate hovers around 50 percent. Carbone received a grant totaling approximately $10 from the National Institute of Health (NIH) in 2006 to investigate the area for erionite, the largest grant ever awarded for mesothelioma research.

Even with such weighty experiences, the doctors were still notably struck by the conditions at Houma.

“I thought this would be impossible, certainly in the United States of America.”

“They named it Asbestos City,” Dunton-Downer said. “Even though Dogan had to do tests to prove it, these guys know it when they see it. And they thought most of the roofs on most of the houses on most of the streets seemed to have asbestos — and when you looked you just saw it. It doesn’t require a sleuth to pick out a house; you could just drive down the street.”

Dunton-Downer called “Ray of Light” a “dramatic documentary,” a hybrid of factual information and slick production values.

While Dogan collected samples from roofs and floor tiles for the program, Carbone took blood samples from the family to determine why, in a town dubbed “Asbestos City,” only one particular family seemed afflicted with mesothelioma. Though Carbone’s role is on the medical side of the project, his experiences in Turkey and elsewhere have afforded him a level of expertise in identifying asbestos.

“I have never seen anything like Houma in my life,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. I saw the asbestos roofs in pictures and I thought, ‘Well, there were asbestos roofs,’ but to find a city full of asbestos roofs, I had never seen anything like that.
In his future projects, Dogan looks to place a greater emphasis on asbestos and erionite in the United States. He is now writing a grant to help fund a domestic project with University of Iowa assistant professor Meral Dogan, professor Charles Stainer, and professor Greg Carmichael.

“We did a few houses,” Dogan said. “We have to enlarge this and find out the bottom of the problem.”

Check back at http://www.cgrer.uiowa.edu/news/index.html for future airdates of “Ray of Light.”

By Soheil Rezayazdi




		Discovery Channel recruits UI mineralogist for Louisiana Investigation Trailed by camera crews, University of Iowa adjunct professor Umran Dogan scoured five homes in Houma, Louisiana this June in search of one thing: asbestos, the fibrous mineral known to cause mesothelioma. It didn’t take long. “I wasn’t expecting actually to go for just one or two days and find asbestos, but I did,” said Dogan, a colleague of CGRER co-director Greg Carmichael. “There was no question that chrysotile type asbestos was in those samples.” Dogan is a renowned mineralogist who has worked extensively with minerals linked to the cancer mesothelioma, namely asbestos and erionite. His prominence in the field led producers at the Discovery Channel to recruit him and pathologist Michele Carbone for an episode of its documentary series “Surgery Saved My Life.” The hour-long episode, titled “Ray of Light,” is set to premiere in 2008. “Discovery Channel found six mesothelioma cases in Houma, Lousiana,” said Dogan, a member of the UI’s Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research. “Mesothelioma is a very rare disease, so six is a lot in a small town.” Not only were the six cases found in the same town, but in the same household; “Ray of Light” depicts one woman’s attempt to discover why mesothelioma has plagued her family. The show’s producers first contacted Carbone, Dogan’s research partner and director of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii (CRCH), for the episode. The CRCH, according to Carbone, utilizes “51% of all the research money in the United States every year to research mesothelioma,” making it easily the largest mesothelioma research facility in the country. In the United States alone, mesothelioma kills roughly 3,000 people each year, Carbone said. “One of the main goals of our research is to identify the factors that make some people more susceptible than others to asbestos,” he said. “In particular, genetically.” Once on board with the Discovery Channel, Carbone suggested that John Dunton-Downer, the episode’s producer, recruit Dogan to take samples from the suspect houses in Houma. Dogan has conducted similar ongoing research in Cappadocia, Turkey, the mesothelioma capital of the world — in certain Cappadocian villages, the cancer rate hovers around 50 percent. Carbone received a grant totaling approximately $10 from the National Institute of Health (NIH) in 2006 to investigate the area for erionite, the largest grant ever awarded for mesothelioma research. Even with such weighty experiences, the doctors were still notably struck by the conditions at Houma. “I thought this would be impossible, certainly in the United States of America.” “They named it Asbestos City,” Dunton-Downer said. “Even though Dogan had to do tests to prove it, these guys know it when they see it. And they thought most of the roofs on most of the houses on most of the streets seemed to have asbestos — and when you looked you just saw it. It doesn’t require a sleuth to pick out a house; you could just drive down the street.” Dunton-Downer called “Ray of Light” a “dramatic documentary,” a hybrid of factual information and slick production values. While Dogan collected samples from roofs and floor tiles for the program, Carbone took blood samples from the family to determine why, in a town dubbed “Asbestos City,” only one particular family seemed afflicted with mesothelioma. Though Carbone’s role is on the medical side of the project, his experiences in Turkey and elsewhere have afforded him a level of expertise in identifying asbestos. “I have never seen anything like Houma in my life,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. I saw the asbestos roofs in pictures and I thought, ‘Well, there were asbestos roofs,’ but to find a city full of asbestos roofs, I had never seen anything like that. In his future projects, Dogan looks to place a greater emphasis on asbestos and erionite in the United States. He is now writing a grant to help fund a domestic project with University of Iowa assistant professor Meral Dogan, professor Charles Stainer, and professor Greg Carmichael. “We did a few houses,” Dogan said. “We have to enlarge this and find out the bottom of the problem.” Check back at http://www.cgrer.uiowa.edu/news/index.html for future airdates of “Ray of Light.” By Soheil Rezayazdi